That Time They All Met in the CQ

[chiseler]

[Let's be honest, nobody had time to info-share Monday what with motives going live after they came down from the top-level deck and also…you know. The whole awkward thing with the corpse. That happened.

Arrangements are made, the whiteboard's been moved and…there's a wedding.

What the fuck, Cradle.

Either way, assume that Luke found your character in person, sent a message via Furry Passing or contacted them via some other means to inform them about a group meeting up in the Captain's Quarters after the wedding to talk about their findings from the day before.

He's not a leader, and it's probably clear from the way he's leaning against the wall next to the whiteboard and dumping handfuls of space-brand Skittles into his mouth.]

All right…so this happened. [This, of course, being the top deck.] We were all up here yesterday and so we should probably start figuring stuff out. It weirds me out that Alice let us up here now after all this time. [He shrugs.] Who wants to go first?

Comments

[chiseler]

The fact that she's aware something's wrong with her memory is a good sign, I think? That she can recognize that instead of just being programmed to know certain things. Are AIs really not supposed to have that kind of emotion? I wouldn't know.

[antietam]

They can't have emotion. They can be programmed to simulate emotion or, I guess, learn from what we've displayed here.

Though if she was learning from us, you'd think she'd be a whole lot more unstable.

[chiseler]

Not all of us are unstable, thanks. [A short nudge to the ribs with his elbow.] What if she's learning from us but making herself better? Is that possible?

[antietam]

[ Raising his eyebrows like Really? ] Yeah, I mean, that's probably the point of AI. To be like humans but better.

You know I'm going entirely off of science fiction knowledge, right?

[chiseler]

...oh. [WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM HIM.]

You think we could find any science fiction down in the archives? That might help us figure some stuff out, too. I don't know much about science but we've gotta be missing something.

[antietam]

I'd think so. They have plenty of genres. Besides, whatever the people on here collected to read must show what's important to them. They easily could have gotten ideas from those sorts of books.

[chiseler]

I'm gonna need an extra set of eyes then, maybe hands to write notes. You're coming with me later to look for stuff in the archives. Deal?

[antietam]

Yeah, yeah. Guess I don't have anything better to do.

[refactor]

...Wait, seriously?

[ Jack interrupts at this point, since there's a part of this that he takes some issue with. ]

Uhhh, I mean, maybe where you're from? But AI can absolutely have emotion. Least, if you design it right.

[antietam]

... How do you install emotion? I mean, how can you compile that into data?

[refactor]

Well, you don't install it, kiddo, first of all. You don't install much with an AI.

[ He shrugs ]

I mean, you give them their base set of data to pull from, but from there? It's heuristic algorithms. Because, I mean, you're thinking about it like people are that different, but we've gotta learn all that shit too. Least where I'm from? It's easy to make an AI that gains sentience. All the algorithms and data are there, your problem is just the base set.

[ He turns his head slightly to tap on the data port that's just behind his ear. It's very unobtrusive and not very noticeable, but a closer look now that Jack has pointed it out makes it clear that something is meant to be plugged into it. ]

And, I mean, with data ports? That's simple. You can turn your whole friggin' life into data.

[antietam]

[ He ultimately can't understand that, but he's clearly trying to listen. And also focusing on not making a horrified face when Jack points out the data port. ]

Uh. Alright. We've only just started making robots where I'm from, so it sound like we're a long way from that. But do you think that because of their access to where you're from, they'd also have all that information?

[refactor]

[ Jack nods, but before he speaks, there is a pause like he's considering something. ]

I mean, yeah, absolutely. I make AI. Not my specialty, but I've got enough of a knack for it that I can whip something up for the Loader Bots in my sleep.

[ That's... probably more than a knack, Jack. ]

But, I mean. Considering that message? I've gotta admit, I'm thinking way more along the lines of the tech we have on Hyperion for the dataports. I mean, you start talking brain scans and preserving some part of someone? I'm going to be thinking exactly along the lines of uploading that life's worth of experience into data, honestly.

[antietam]

Then do you know what would cause an AI to not realize someone is dead for months? Would it really be memory loss?

[ At least there's someone here who understands what's happening. ]

The brain scans are... yeah, I guess I'm not clear on that either. In that sense, they'd have at least part of our data to do with what they please. So what did they do with it exactly? Recreate us?